$10 minimum wage new flashpoint in Texas governor’s race

Calls to increase the minimum wage became the latest flashpoint in the Texas governor’s race on Friday, after Democrat Wendy Davis called for the minimum to be raised to $10.

Davis weighed into the national controversy that has fast-food workers demanding a hike to $15 an hour, from the current $7.25 an hour, during a campaign appearance at the University of San Antonio, where she had targeted Republican Greg Abbott for being a political insider out of touch with working Texans.

“I’ll fight to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 because this is a family issue,” Davis said Thursday.

A 40-hour-a-week worker currently would make about $15,000 a year at minimum wage, an amount that Davis said is too little to support a family. She repeated her stance in appearances Friday.

“From working to strip our children’s schools of more of than $5 billion that has led to overcrowded classrooms and massive teacher shortages to his opposition to giving 2.8 million Texans a raise that will help them support their families and improve our economy, Greg Abbott is fighting against hardworking Texans,” Davis said at a rally in Denton.

Abbott and business groups quickly shot back on Friday, accusing Davis of proposing an increase that will kill jobs because small businesses will be unable to afford the hike.

“Sen. Davis has already shown her commitment to embracing President Obama’s agenda with her support of ObamaCare. Now, she’s doubling down by trying to bring the ruinous Obama economy to Texas and destroy jobs and opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Texans in the process,” Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said in a statement.

“Texas has come too far to be pulled back by Sen. Davis’ Obama-style, big government mandates.”

The influential Texas Association of Business also weighed in, insisting that many Texas employers use minimum-wage jobs as training jobs. By raising it, some companies will be unable to hire as many people with low skills to train them for better, higher-paying jobs.

“Those job opportunities will go away, and the very people that Sen. Davis is trying to help will actually be hurt because they will have fewer opportunities,” said Bill Hammond, CEO of the business group. “We need to keep the Texas job engine producing at full capacity, and Sen. Davis proposal of raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour is a good way to throw a wrench into a system that is working.”

Many Republican politicians in Texas including Gov. Rick Perry have touted the state’s low-regulation, business-friendly climate as a big reason that Texas has been successful as it has in recent years at keeping its economy growing, at a rate that is the envy of many other states.

The Texas Republican Party calls in its platform approved in June for abolishing minimum wage laws altogether.

Labor groups sided with Davis.

“Sen. Wendy Davis is right: Texans need a raise,” said AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller. “Our state’s $7.25 an hour minimum wage mires workers in the depths of poverty and cannot decently support an individual, much less a family.”

Davis’ proposal, she said, “would go a long way toward providing dignity for all workers in Texas. It would also benefit the Texas economy. Minimum-wage workers spend almost everything that comes in and higher wages would head straight toward Texas businesses.”

In addition, she added, “Texas taxpayers would not have to subsidize as many Texans through public assistance programs if all Texans who work full-time could take care of the basics.”

Critics claim that the large number of minimum-wage workers in Texas helps keep its unemployment rate low, at the expense of workers who are working at the poverty line. Federal labor statistics show Texas’ unemployment rate 5.1 percent in July, compared to the national average of 6.2 percent.

Those statistics show that in 2013, 6.4 percent of Texas’ hourly-wage workers make minimum wage — the fifth-highest percentage in the nation.

The campaign rhetoric flared up Friday as fast-food and retail workers continued protesting low wages, calling for the minimum-wage to re raised to $15 an hour. On Thursday, police handcuffed protesters who blocked traffic in dozens of cities across the country during protests on the issue — including some places in Texas.

Wendy Davis speaks Friday at a Denton rally

Crowd of supporters at a Wendy Davis rally in Denton on Friday, where she advocated raising the minimum wage.